By 2012, 32 states had given voters the chance to legalize same-sex marriage.

And 32 times, voters rejected the concept.

In
The New Black, documentarian Yoruba Richen chronicles the battle over same-sex-marriage
voting in Maryland. The movie, which will be shown tonight at the Wexner Center for the Arts, is
timely.

On April 30, six couples filed a federal lawsuit in Cincinnati seeking to overturn Ohio’s
restrictions on same-sex marriage. And on April 15, U.S. District Judge Timothy S. Black ruled that
same-sex marriages legally performed in other states must be recognized in Ohio.

The movie project began after election night 2008, when Barack Obama became the first black man
elected president of the United States.

That same night, California voters approved Proposition 8, which made same-sex marriage illegal
in that state.

“It was this moment of triumph for civil rights and a very painful defeat for the LGBT
community,” said Richen, who will attend the screening at the Wex tonight.

Sharon Lettman-Hicks — executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, which favors
same-sex marriage — was on the front lines in California in the battle over Proposition 8.

“Within 24 hours,” she says in the film, “they blamed it on black people for passing.”

In 2010, when shooting for
The New Black began, Richen wanted to make a documentary about Proposition 8 and how the
battle over the measure affected blacks and gays. Her plans changed in 2012, when Gov. Martin O’M
alley signed into law a bill that made same-sex marriage legal in Maryland.

Quickly, opponents sought to place a referendum on the ballot. The issue was “Question 6.”

“This is a state where blacks were going to make a big difference in the vote,” Richen said. “So
a lot of the pieces I had been looking at came together in Maryland.”

A flaw in the approach of marriage-equality groups in California was the assumption that blacks
would view Proposition 8 as a civil-rights issue when, in fact, many considered the proposal to be
about family and religion.

In Maryland, African-American ministers became involved, such as Pastor Derek McCoy, chairman of
the Maryland Marriage Alliance. The group helped lead the movement to get the referendum on the
ballot.

In the movie, McCoy says that the Bible defines marriage as a pact between one man and one
woman, and that same-sex marriage doesn’t fit the definition.

“People can choose to live however they want to live,” McCoy says in the movie. “What we’re
saying is, they don’t have the right to redefine marriage for everybody.”

Right-wing groups, such as the National Organization for Marriage, carried the fight into the
pulpit by recruiting black ministers to preach against Question 6.

But some ministers began to speak in favor of it, such as Rev. Delman Coates, pastor of an
8,000-member church in Prince George’s County, an area described in the movie as the nation’s
wealthiest predominantly black community.

In the film, Coates speaks from the pulpit: “We are stronger as a society when people of all
backgrounds, all opinions, all races, all colors, all sexual orientations get equal treatment under
the law.”

A turning point came when Obama — who in 2008 had defined marriage as being between one man and
one woman — announced that he now favored same-sex marriage.

“It was very important,” Richen said.

“Activists . . . said that really turned the tide as far as being able to have a real
conversation with people about it.”

On election night, Question 6 passed, with 52 percent of voters favoring same-sex marriage and
48 percent against, marking the first time voters had approved same-sex-marriage.

But the issue remains complicated, Richen said.

“What I want people to understand is the complexity of the LGBT issue for African-Americans is
that, in understanding our evolution of it, you have to understand our legacy of civil rights,”
Richen said. “Like everybody in this country, there is an evolution of thinking on this issue.”